Corning Moves HR To The Cloud: Employees Say This Is Amazing

Moving human resources (HR) to the cloud was the best way for Corning to give employees the same experience as its customers. This leading global manufacturer of specialty glass and ceramics has about 50,000 employees in 35 countries. Its goal was to modernize HR to attract and retain the top talent needed for continuous growth and innovation.

“We wanted to bring into the workplace the same customer experience our employees have in their personal lives,” said Christy Pambianchi, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Corning. “People evaluate companies based on the kind of tools and work environment they utilize. We also knew our ability to rapidly assemble and connect employees worldwide was going to be critical to our competitive advantage.”

We wanted to bring into the workplace the same customer experience our employees have in their personal lives @successfactors @corning

Corning's HR team brought into the workplace the same customer experience that employees have in their personal lives.sap

No training needed

Unlike past HR projects at Corning, the move to SAP SuccessFactors didn’t require a huge investment in training materials. While Corning shifted all HR processes ─ recruiting, payroll, performance reviews ─ to the cloud, people had no trouble learning how to use the highly intuitive software.

“We’re getting thank-you emails from employees saying this is amazing, I’m a millennial, I love this product, I feel like you brought this company into the 21st century,” she said. “Within a month we had about half a million hits on our talent acquisition website.”

Cloud builds people community

According to Pambianchi, SAP SuccessFactors makes it easy for employees to find each other and work together, as well as stay connected to the company. Workers shared some of the loudest praise for mobile access to the HR system.

“Employees love that in their pocket on their mobile phone or tablet, they can look at their employee information and change their address, look up available jobs, and find anyone in the company,” she said. “All of a sudden our company has this community in the cloud where people can find each other and work together in a way that wasn’t possible before.”

The benefits haven’t been limited to traditional, office employees. Pambianchi said that factory workers are just as excited about having access to HR information through the cloud-based system.

“I do HR for a living. I don’t necessarily think about how to invent the next HR technology,” said Pambianchi. “Partnering with SAP makes me feel like I have an R&D department working on the best things for keeping people and HR capabilities at the forefront of what’s happening technologically. Whether full-time, part-time or temporary, we want all employees to have the same knowledge, skills, and cultural experience as every employee.”

She added that the recent release of GDPR-compliant capabilities in SAP SuccessFactors was a prime example of the benefits of being in partnership with SAP.

Next up for HR at Corning is taking advantage of AI and machine learning. Pambianchi said the team also looked forward to transforming learning delivery, getting content to people faster, and driving talent as a competitive advantage.